Tony Hawk's shift in focus from arcade skateboarding game to something intended for kids unknowingly left a gap in the action sports genre. Prior to Tony Hawk Ride, the series represented the arcade side of the sport while EA's Skate series represented the simulation side. After the affirmation that the latest game, Tony Hawk Shred, would be aimed at younger fans, gamers who were looking for something less serious than EA's series were seemingly out of luck. Ubisoft has come along with Shaun White Skateboarding, a more arcade-like take on the sport of skateboarding. While the game needs more to become a top-tier arcade skateboarding game, it is off to a very good start.

Shaun White Skateboarding's plot hasn't been seen in a sports title since Evolution Skateboarding. The city of New Harmony is one of false peace and harmony thanks to an organization called The Ministry. The citizens bend to the will of the constant propaganda and, in the ultimate sign of conformity and loss of individuality, everything is seen through a heavy filter of gray. To that end, the biggest enemy facing The Ministry is a group of rebels known as The Rising, who wants to overthrow The Ministry and bring back individualism to the city. Unfortunately for them, the skater known as Shaun White has been captured and is in the process of being brainwashed to conform like the rest of the population. You play the role of an ordinary citizen in New Harmony who has been assigned to put away the personal effects of Shaun before his detainment. Upon touching his skateboard, you feel a surge of personality course through you, and you realize that The Ministry is wrong. With the help of Jonah, the former leader of The Ministry who is trying to make amends, and the rest of The Rising, your mission is to free Shaun White and save the citizens of New Harmony.

When you begin training, you'll notice that a few mechanics help further the unorthodox plot. Every trick and combo you do, from the simple ollie to the Shaun's own armadillo, builds up the flow meter, which slowly drains when you're not performing tricks. Once the meter is built to certain levels, you can land tricks to transform the environment around you. Depending on the level of flow stored up and the level needed for each object, the transformations can be as simple as changing the colors of the environments and people to creating ramps and transforming buildings to access more areas. While the feature starts out subtly, it becomes a great asset since the environment can be a bit dynamic.

The other big mechanic for Shaun White Skateboarding is shaping. Throughout the city are green lines, ground pieces and faint objects that can be passed through normally. Once you choose to skate on them, they begin to solidify into vert ramps, streets or grind rails. Initially, these pieces are static, but as you progress, you can alter their courses and add to the dynamic nature of each environment by linking the shapeable lines for massive grind sessions or to get from a grind to a ramp without having to rely on a manual to keep the combos going. Contrary to what people initially thought, the controllable elements don't make the game any easier. The levels are designed in such a way that getting to and from certain places would be almost impossible if the objects weren't there.

After years of playing good skate simulation titles, it feels great to get back in an arcade style game that feels fresh. Interestingly enough, the freshness is a result of the title striking a balance between simulation and arcade gameplay. Those who are used to busting out million-point combos in the Tony Hawk games won't find that sort of action here, as your skater is usually capable of busting out one trick at a time while airborne. At the same time, player jumps are exaggerated a tad, and grind sessions can be very long, unlike what you see in the Skate series. It still feels like an arcade game but with some real-world sensibility. The environments are fairly large, and the campaign is quite lengthy. The plot-based nature also makes for some good set pieces, such as an escape sequence in which you must avoid getting hit by a helicopter's gunfire as well as avoiding getting run over by a monorail. For the most part, the campaign is filled with enough action and skating challenges that you'll want to play through it and complete the various sub-objectives in each environment. Finally, the experience system lets you trade in experience from completing missions and big tricks for new tricks, giving you a bigger repertoire to use anytime you skate. While that may seem like a negative, it makes sense when you consider the nature of the plot.

The shift from snowboarding series to skateboarding series comes with a few complaints, though. The custom character system feels very limited; you'll only find a set number of pre-made faces and no editing options. The clothes selection feels small, even after you've unlock everything. You can have different hats and hairstyles, but you can't exactly mix them together.

Bailing is another complaint, mainly because you rarely bail at all. You have to work very hard to bail, and most of the time, trying to do something like land on your head or fall from large distances becomes the only way to bail. When you finally manage to bail, though, you discover that the reason for its difficulty is because respawning makes the game go to a loading screen. The load isn't especially long, but it is annoying when other games don't suffer from that.

As for the lengthy campaign mode, it is great to have a good amount of gameplay, but one can't help but feel that portions of the game feel out of place or should not have been included. The scenes in the amusement park instantly come to mind since they give you numerous missions that do nothing to enhance or advance the plot. These missions felt like they were included to keep players busy, so they’re more frustrating than enjoyable.

The online multiplayer community is nonexistent at present, and that's a shame since the game packs in a match variant that is quite enjoyable. You have the free skate mode, which equates to everyone in an open environment fooling around for as long as possible. You also have solo and team-based versions of a mode where you have to score as much flow as possible before time runs out. The best mode is Ministry vs. Rising, where teams are formed with the objective of using flow and tricks to capture as many designated spaces as possible before time runs out. Thanks to the dynamic environments, the matches can get furious and exciting. For those seeking local multiplayer, the game provides split-screen play, but matches are limited to two players.

The control scheme is the same as its snowboarding counterpart, so fans of that game can easily make the jump to this one without much modification. Like that game, this one is mostly an analog stick affair; your left analog stick controls your skater while flicking the right stick performs the tricks and jumps. The triggers and bumper buttons become trick modifiers that let you do a variety of things from pulling off manuals to lip moves to transfers. Face buttons are used for less important actions, such as getting on and off the board and initiating savior shaping. The d-pad gives you the ability to save your position at one spot and warp back there instantly at the loss your stored-up flow. The scheme works much better than the previous game, as it feels easier to perform almost any move, and it never feels like you're fighting the controls. That feeling of familiarity may be attributed to gamers having been acclimated to right analog stick controls, but the choice for sticks over buttons was definitely the right one.

The sound is mostly fitting for Shaun White Skateboarding. Aside from a few cut scenes and training sessions, the music is your typical assortment of classic and modern rock, with a rap song thrown in here and there. The play order is random enough that it'll take a while before you hear everything on the soundtrack, though it should be noted that you can't customize it in any way. It is a good selection of songs, and you won't likely tune out unless rock music isn't your genre. The voice work is done well enough, but because the main cast has a few characters that have been overplayed, you'll tire of skate shop owner Bob and bumbling artist Fernando after a few lines of dialogue. You'll also tire of the bystanders as you skate by. While their lines are good and funny some of the time, they are repeated so often that they lose their charm before the halfway point.

The graphics also look great, especially the use of color. The character models look fine, and though they are smaller in stature compared to the snowboarding game, you can still see a good amount of detail when the camera zooms in. The animations are just a hair below those seen in Skate 3, but they still look great. The environments look excellent, especially the first time you see them go through the metamorphosis from gray to full color. The change isn't too abrupt, and the transition plays out nicely. This is especially true of things like ramps coming out of the street and walls as you activate them with your flow tricks. The particle effects are also good, and little touches like pieces of pavement flying from the skateboard as it grinds by are quite nice. Overall, the game, like its predecessor, is very easy on the eyes.

Shaun White Skateboarding marks a return to a less serious skateboarding game. The plot may be silly and occasionally feel drawn out, but the skating is well done and the shaping elements add to the game's challenge. Without much of a community to deal with, though, you'll simply have to make do with conquering the challenges in case you have no one with whom to play locally. If you're a skating fan who has grown tired of Skate 3 or craves something of a throwback to the Tony Hawk days of yore, you might want to give this game a look.

Score: 7.5/10